Video:Zack Snyder Interview - Watchmen, ShoWest 2009
with Rebecca Murray'Watchmen' helmer Zack Snyder picked up the Director of the Year award at the 2009 ShoWest event held in Las Vegas. And at a press conference prior to accepting the honor, Snyder talked about the upcoming director's cut of 'Watchmen.'
Transcript:Zack Snyder Interview - Watchmen, ShoWest 2009
Rebecca Murray from About.com Hollywood Movies at 2009 ShoWest.
Zack Snyder – Director of the Year Award Winner
Why haven't audiences really responded to Watchmen?Zack Snyder: "Well I think that Watchmen is a lot of craziness. It's a long movie and it's rated R. The one thing we were talking about is that I think that when we set out to make the movie, it's not like when you work with material like what we worked with – the graphic novel, which is an incredible piece of literature – you know, I'm a huge fan of it and I really wanted to do something and I felt like, based on the material, I had to do it that way. And we're super proud of the movie; I think the movie is amazing. Director's cut is coming soon so in July you'll get to see more Watchmen. If you didn't have enough with the two hour and forty minutes, you'll have three hours and ten minutes. I think there's three hours and thirty minutes coming so there will be a lot more Watchmen to come, regardless of how people feel about it. But I also feel like, you know we were talking about how Monsters vs Aliens, which is a cool movie, comes out and it makes like whatever, $58 million and everyone's like, 'Oh my god! It's the hugest hit ever!' And then our R rated movie with like two and a half hour with like superheroes raping each other makes $55 million and everyone's like, 'What? How is that possible?' So, like I say, I'm pretty happy with the movie."
Is there going to be a theatrical release of the director's cut of Watchmen?
Zack Snyder: "I think that's still happening. I think they're going to do a limited run of it. They're still talking about it anyway."
Is there going to be an IMAX version of the director's cut?
Zack Snyder: "I don't think so. Just because that process of… I'll tell you why they can't do it. When we did the theatrical release of Watchmen, the IMAX theatrical release, if you go to it you'll realize that the title sequence at the end of the movie is way shorter just because they have to jam it. Now, the movie is probably about, when it's on the pallet, it's about as big as this thing I'm standing on. Maybe a little bit bigger – it weighs like 5,000 pounds or something. It's crazy because they just run it in one big, giant spool. Now the movie was in length so close to not fitting into this IMAX format as the theatrical release that they were saying if the projection room is too humid, the film would fall off because it would actually be too thick. That little bit of moisture in between the rolls of film would make the movie too long and it would fall off and fall on the floor, so they had to keep the projection rooms dry I guess. I don't know how they do it. But anyway, so to answer your question, if that almost broke the bank, the rest of what we've done would destroy the entire process. There would be no IMAX. IMAX as we know it would be destroyed."
How would you approach the horror genre?
Zack Snyder: "You know, I think that horror right now does lack a little bit of like social commentary. It does lack a little bit of I don't want to say art, but maybe that's true. I don't think that horror has been pushed really hard lately. I think that it's kind of you know gone into slasher mode a little bit. And maybe, hopefully, there will be some guys who rise up and make something cool. But I'm a huge fan of the genre so I like to see what's happening, so it's cool."